Gwen Stefani and Blake Shelton’s romance has dominated the tabloids since the first blurry images of them together at a Halloween party surfaced last year. Everything they do as #Shefani (one of the more frequently used portmanteaus for their coupling) gets a headline—from hand-holding, to mouth-on-mouth kissing, to afternoon car rides. For a casual follower of celebrity gossip, it often feels like too much. But for the internet’s biggest #Shefani stans, it isn’t nearly enough.
Though I’d never go as far as saying I find Shefani’s love disingenuous, I do think it’s always toeing a line between super boring and super irritating. Their trips to Oklahoma put me to sleep. Their filmed make-outs make me shiver. I understand celebrity couple obsession: I’m the type of person who ships Sarah Paulson and Holland Taylor. Kim and Kanye. Jessica Chastain and that stoic Italian guy. But I was baffled by the Shefani fans, and what could possibly make them tick.
What I discovered—and what should have been obvious—is that theirs is a fandom free from cynicism, a rose-tinted version of the already rosy image Gwen and Blake project to their adoring, Voice-watching public. When I asked some of Twitter’s most active Shefani stans why they loved them, I received answers like, “My favorite thing about them is that they’re so different yet so similar in so many ways” and “What is there not to love about them?” Like most true loves, the love of Shefani is irrational, all-encompassing, and wonderful.
Two Shefani stans were kind enough to chat with me over DM. Below are edited versions of our conversations.
Shefani Stan #1
What about Shefani do you love the most?
Oh that’s a hard question! Well I’ve been a Gwen fan since I was 9 and I always knew Blake from The Voice. I can’t say I was a “fan” of Blake before Shefani, but I have recently become a fan! Hmm. I think the thing I love most about Shefani is that I can just see how genuinely happy Gwen is. I’ve been a fan for many years and she just seems so so so happy, it makes me super happy that the person who means the most to me a actually happy and is smiling like this again. I also love how happy Blake is looking. It’s awesome! They both seem to be very into each other and like they found their true love, they are so cute and adorable and i can’t get enough. I could go into how much Gwen has saved my life in many ways but I would be here for hours.
Also how it all came to be is a favorite thing to them being great friends then bonding over how similar their pasts were and they fell in love. It’s kinda like a fairytale. It’s all just too perfect.
What other celebrity couples do you ship?
Um I don’t really ship any other celeb couples at the moment!
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
